


Finally Warm

by TheSpace_Dragon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, I am so sorry, I have no excuses, I was challenged, JUST, M/M, and well here it is, do not blame me for this, i blame caro too, i blame red for this, i just cant pass up a challenge, it wasnt my idea, like goddamn, take this away from me please, there is literally so much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:49:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9494249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpace_Dragon/pseuds/TheSpace_Dragon
Summary: He was finally warm. He was home.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thesearchingastronaut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesearchingastronaut/gifts).



> Don't blame me for anything that happens in this fic.

Well, things could be going better right now.

Like he could be on the beach right now, sipping some fruity drink that his brother got for him.

He could be surfing too, feelings the waves’ power underneath of him, only the board keeping him moving.

He could almost feel the ocean breeze in his hair, could almost hear his family laughing around him, their warm embrace keeping him grounded. His mama smiling proudly at him, finally he was the fighter pilot he always dreamed of being. His dad ruffling his hair and congratulating him.

Everyone was so proud of him graduating from the Garrison…

The Garrison? Wasn’t there something else?

He felt like he was grasping at straws, that little inkling of something that he _knew_ he was forgetting. What was it is? All he could remember was the color blue…and then a flash of red.

What did they mean? His favorite color was blue, but what does red have to do anything with it?

He could vaguely remember there being some guy at the Garrison that had this weird cropped red jacket…a motorcycle jacket? Who needed one of those in a space exploration program?

Was that program he was in? The fighter class?

His memory was getting terrible. He really needed to work on that. Those major details were slipping away and it felt like he was losing himself.

What was his name?

Was this all a dream?

“…ance…?”

What?

“Lan…”

He could feel the blackness creeping in around him. It was warm and he felt so cold. So cold. He wanted to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin, the cool ocean breeze to balance it out, only to have his family’s embrace to knock it all askew again. But that was a warmth that he could handle.

The black, the void, it offered to be able to see them again. He reached out, reaching for his family, his siblings, his cousins, aunt, uncles, and grandparents. They were all there waiting for him. Why couldn't he reach them?

“Lance!”

Who’s Lance?

His hand caught something, a strong grip, it seared him. Too hot. It was too hot.

“Lance, c’mon! Come back to me dammit!”

Who was calling him?

He looked back his family, they were calling to him, beckoning him to take the last few steps. But the hand on his, that burning hand pulled him in the other direction. He could feel that same fire on his shoulder. It pressed on his side. Where was the breeze? That cool breath of wind?

“Lance, please, you have to- you have to come back! Don’t go!”

Why was that voice so broken? It tickled his memory, he could swear that voice never sounded the way it did now, not even when it whispered to him at night just before he fell asleep. He couldn’t remember where it came from, but he loved hearing that voice. And now it was sad. Why was it so sad?

He squeezed back. That hand holding his felt so desperate.

“H…Hey…” he croaked. “I’m n…not going…any…where.”

His throat felt on fire, it was so dry. He swallowed, the air burned. Why did everything hurt so much?

He sucked in a ragged breath, his chest hurt, it felt like his whole world revolved around the one point.

The arm around him held him tightly and he could feel a weight fall onto his forehead. Something soft lay against his eyes. He could hear his family still calling him, but they sounded far away, not nearly as close that had been before.

He looked back at them. They had their hands out towards him, and that soft warmth he was craving so much surrounded them. He wanted to run to them, tackle them to the ground. He had been away for so long. Those two years at the Garrison were the hardest, the weekly phone calls weren't enough. They never were. He had been lucky to even have a family to call home, he remembered his teammate, the small one. She couldn't call home. Technically she had run away from home, all in order to find the rest of her family. Now she was lost in the middle of space.

Wait, that meant he was in space too. Didn't he drag her and his other teammate out into the desert to rescue others?

A lion’s roar woke him back up.

“Lance! Please, you have to stay awake, stay with me. C’mon, open your eyes, please…”

He felt his eyes crack open. Gray eyes looked down at him, bright and watery.

“Keith…”

Keith placed a hand on his cheek. “H-hey, Lance. How are you feeling?”

He coughed, his chest felt like it was splitting itself open. His vision whited out. He just wanted to sleep. “What…happened?” he managed eventually.

He watched as Keith closed his eye and fought back sobs. His helmet was laying on the ground next to them, his bayard there too. “You were…you were shot.”

“I was what?”

“You were shot.”

He felt what little oxygen that was in his body rush out of his body. His head felt fuzzy and all of his limbs were encased in cement.

Keith opened his eyes to look down at him again. He looked so broken. He could vaguely remember how just a few days ago, Keith had opened up to him. He had spilled all of his own insecurities, all of his wants and fears. Everything. He remembered how he had taken Keith into his arms, remembered how Keith had trembled. He knew that they had sat there in the dark, holding onto each other. Even with the rest of the team there to support them, both of them had felt so alone.

He could remember how Keith had pulled away and wiped his face before giving him a small smile. The mention of thanks before he leaned forward once more. He could remember the warmth of Keith's kiss, how he immediately returned it. All the feelings that he had suppressed for the sake of the team roared their way to the surface. He could still feel the softness of Keith's hair in his fingers, the rough callouses of his hands on his face. The kiss was needy, desperate, they had been so touch-starved, that a simple kiss was enough to throw both of them over the edge.

Even still, he remembered how laid together that night, holding each other, grounding each other.

“I’m scared too,” he had whispered. “I’m scared that I’m going to die out here, and no one back home will know what happened to me. I want to be able to see them one more time.”

Keith had sat up and stared down at him. “Lance, I promise that you will be able to see them again. You’ll see your family again.”

Now he wasn’t so sure. He could see the red of the sky, could feel the vibrations of explosions in the ground. Something slammed into his mind, shocking him. He gasped and opened his eyes again. When had he closed them?

Keith looked so broken. Why? Did he do something wrong? Did he say the wrong thing? He blinked and saw his family flash before him. What he would give to see them, to be close once more. Keith's hands were shaking, and he felt something fall on his face.

He opened his eyes again, blinking, confused because he had no idea when he keeps closing them. No memory. Keith was crying, sobbing over him, muttering his name over and over again.

He could feel the blackness come back, sucking the light away from him.

It was time.

With all the space travel they had done over the course of a few months, he just knew that by now Earth had kept turning, spinning around the sun, time passing at a much faster rate there than it ever would for him now. He couldn't exactly say how he knew, but he did. That gut instinct that every once and awhile he had to listen to. Like the night he told Coran that he missed home, that one mission where he was certain he didn't have a thing to bring to the table in regards to the rest of the team. And the same gut instinct that told him that Keith valued his input, that he wasn't faking it when it came to his feelings, that he meant it when Keith told him that he mattered, that he was a crucial part of the team.

He reached up and held Keith’s face with one hand. The brief flame of life that everything was given when they are born was fading fast for him. He had to say it before it was too late. His heart swelled looking up at his dear friend, the other flame that kept him going through the thick and thin.

“Keith… thank you-”

“Lance, no! You can’t! No stop-”

“…I get to see them again…they’re all waiting… they always have been, ever since we left…”

“Lance please, shh, stop talking, save your energy. Coran and Allura are almost here with the castle, we can get you to a pod…You’re not…”

"I want you-" Coughs wracked him to his core again, his chest flaring in agony. He needed to be quick if he was going to say what he wanted.

His breath was wet and ragged, but he sucked enough to finished what he needed to say.

“Keith, I love you… Tell… the others I said goodbye, okay?"

Keith shattered above him. He leaned over and held Lance close. He could smell the burnt material of Lance’s armor, the way the plasma bolt cauterized the wound. It had burned its way through Lance’s chest, right through a major artery, and while it didn’t bleed, all the backed up blood spread its way into his lungs. His breathing was labored and it wasn’t long after a particularly deep breath that everything stilled. No breath, no heartbeat. Nothing.

Keith pulled away, looking down at the one person to keep him calm in the heat of the moment. A faint smile was there and his eyes were closed. He looked at peace, so peaceful that Keith almost wished that Lance was just sleeping.

Lance finally felt warm, he was with his family. They were all so happy, he felt so welcomed. But something was missing, someone was missing. He spun.

That turn felt like it took a thousand years, but when he finally faced the right direction, he saw who he wanted to see.

Keith stood there, a few feet away. “I told you that you would see them again. Go to them, Lance.”

“But what about you?”

“This is your time with them, I’ll catch up. It’s not my time right now.”

Lance grinned. “Whatever floats your boat, man. Don’t take too long, okay? You gotta try my mama’s cooking as soon as possible.”

Keith smiled in return, it was soft; all the love he could muster was in that smile, Lance could tell. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon.”

“I’m holding you to that!”

He turned back to his family, smiling splitting his face in two. He finally felt warm. He was finally home.

* * *

Scream at me on [tumblr](http://thespace-dragon.tumblr.com/).


End file.
